I use ibuprofen a fair amount. I don't use it to take away pain, because frankly ibuprofen doesn't touch any pain that I have. If my wrist is hurting, I take it - my wrist will still hurt. What it does seem to help for me is reducing swelling. Take the ibuprofen when I have wrist pain and maybe my wrists will only hurt for a few days and not for a few weeks.

So my taking NSAIDs has nothing to do with whether or not I am willing to endure some pain to participate in the endurance activities I'm doing. I've already accepted the pain, I just hope to limit how long I am in pain by reducing the swelling.

I have a friend that is a critical care nurse and has seen too many cases of kidney damage from ibuprofen use. She makes sure to keep herself very hydrated when taking ibuprofen. If she takes a couple in the morning, she drinks a few liters of water with it to minimize the kidney damage. I've taken to doing the same whenever I take some ibuprofen and trying to make sure I don't become dehydrated. Unfortunately the situations where I usually "need" it, I'm usually fighting to stay hydrated.

http://blog.remotemedical.com/wilder...-medicate.html